Network sharing refers to cooperation in or sharing of telecommunication network infrastructure or a network device among multiple operators (or third parties). Sharing of telecommunication network infrastructure may include sharing of site infrastructure such as a site location, an equipment room facility, an iron tower, and a power supply device. Sharing of a network device may include sharing of a facility related to a telecommunication network device, such as a base station, a transmission network, and a core network.
Operators are distinguished by using public land mobile network identifiers (PLMN ID). In a network sharing scenario, it is possible that multiple operators share a same frequency or a same cell. In this case, each shared cell will configure all PLMN IDs supported and an evolved base station (eNodeB) broadcasts all the PLMN IDs supported by the cell using an air interface system message. A UE selects one PLMN ID from the multiple PLMN IDs as a serving PLMN ID and reports the selected PLMN ID to the eNodeB. Then the eNodeB selects a core network of an operator corresponding to the PLMN ID according to the PLMN ID.
For a long term evolution (LTE) system, a maximum bandwidth is 20 MHz. For a long term evolution-advanced (LTE-A) system, a 1 Gbps downlink peak rate and a 500 Mbps uplink peak rate are required. To meet the requirement, a carrier aggregation (CA) technology is introduced in the LTE-A system where multiple continuous or discontinuous carriers are aggregated to serve a user equipment (UE) simultaneously as required, so as to provide a required rate. By using the CA technology, a resource utilization rate can be maximized and discrete spectrum resources can be utilized effectively.
Currently, the CA is applied for a non-network sharing scenario. In a network sharing scenario, however, because it is possible that multiple operators share a same frequency or a same cell, the CA processing scheme based on a non-network sharing scenario is not applicable.